Emmbrook School is earmarked for move

The Emmbrook School has been earmarked to move to Arborfield as part of a bid for £80 million funding to rebuild Wokingham schools.

A final expression of interest for school rebuild funding was sent to the Government last month with information clearly pointing to the relocation of The Emmbrook, The Wokingham Times can reveal.

The final Building Schools for the Future (BSF) document was only uncovered when Wokingham Liberal Democrats demanded to see it.

The opposition group has accused Conservative-led Wokingham Borough Council of attempting to hide the truth to avoid a disastrous reaction from Emmbrook residents.

The Wokingham Times was provided only with a draft version of the document last week, which did not include the appendices laying out clear details of the plans for Wokingham’s schools, including a £30 million rebuild of The Emmbrook.

The document indicates one of the borough’s eight secondary schools should move to Arborfield and The Emmbrook is the only one singled out to be relocated.

Hundreds of people objected to the relocation of The Emmbrook to the south of the then-district in 2005 because they wanted to keep the school on their doorstep, forcing the council into a U-turn.